freebirthing/no medical assistance

There has been a wee bit in the media about freebirthing after an Australian women who gave birth without assistance baby died. I was just looking on TVNZ and found this link to a british couple who used utube to watched births so he could deleiver the baby. It was her 4th child and the labour was over 3 hrs... I have had three labours, each under three hours and each time have made it to the hospital with plenty of time and had my midwife there to assist with the birth...

I personally think that choosing to birth a child without any medical assistance is irresponsible, there are many risks involved in childbirth and to blantantly disregard these for your own personal view is not acceptable to me.

I think there is a place for homebirth, but assisted by a trained midwife who can help if needed. free birthing or watching utube for assistance seems rather strange.

no homebirth for us

I had my midwife visit today, so I talked to her about the possiblity of having a homebirth, at first we thought it might work then as we talked about what happened after K's birth so decided that a homebirth is not the right choice for us.

I got to hear the heartbeat, which was really cool. I am only 10 weeks and looking at my tummy I look a lot further along, a mum at school today said to me "wow you have popped out" and shes right. I have popped out quite quickly, but the same happened with O so I arent too concerned at the moment. It was awesome to hear the heartbeat, its so fast, a bit like a horse galloping in a way.

D

hair going natural colour tonight

I have bought a packet of dye that is very close to my natural colour and tonight I am going to dye my hair. Its got over an inch of regrowth so I at least had a good idea of what colour I needed to do it.

as I have said previously I haven't had my hair my natural colour for 11 years, so its going to be a bit strange in some ways, I am not going to dye it for the next year which will be nice in some ways, a bit of freedom from the regrowth and the cost of getting it done.

K and I are measuring my tummy before she goes to bed which will be interesting. I am only 10 weeks, but that's according to the scan dates, I put myself at 11 weeks tomorrow, I have the midwife on Thursday so will talk to her about home birth and my dates.

good morning

I am still thinking about home births, but thinking that it might not be a possibility due to the severity of my pph with K and that fact I had to go to theatre afterwards. But if its not I will still be investigating the possibility of a water birth, I really want one, I found the pain so much easier to deal with when I was in the bath with O.

In other things happening, we are thinking about heating for our new house... do we go with heat pumps (air conditioning) or something else? I am leaning towards the heat pump option, and possibly something like a pellet fire for winter ambiance. I have to ring banks today to make an appointment to organise a mortgage which is really scary.

We had a nice long weekend, it was very strange though without our K, she should be back tomorrow and I have missed her more than I thought I would. We still had our traditional Easter egg hunt, which was great, but it would have been better with K here. L seems a bit lost with out her big sister here, but shes been taken out with her godparents twice which she really loved. It left us down to just O which was really different too....

homebirth, is it for me?

Ben watched the business of being born today so he brought up the topic of homebirth and whether its an option for us this time... at first I thought, nah... but now its growing on me and I am wondering if it might be a good option for us.

I had a pph with K so had to have a canula in my hand for the next two, but am thinking I will do some research and see if thats a total reason for me to have a hospital birth this time, my labours are relatively quick (under 3 hrs), and I havent used any pain relief. I would love to have a waterbirth and its a definite option if we have a homebirth.

Childcare would be easier too if we are at home, the kids would be there and could be involved if they wanted to be, but would be able to play if they didnt... this is definitely going to need some further research into the concept. My midwife does do homebirths so am sure she would be supportive as long as there are no medical reasons not too.. eg anaemia...

D

the business of being born

I went with a friend to see this documentary today it was put on by the homebirth association and the nz college of midwives, omg it was amazing

Its done by rikki lake after she was unhappy with her birth experience the first time, it followed a couple of women and their births and talked to many sides of the birth process in the usa. only 8% of women there have a midwife, and under 1% have homebirths, I personally arent able to have homebirths but think they are great for those who choose to do that.

The us stats were scary, in some hospitals nearly 45% of births are c sections, here its around 24% which is still quite high, infant mortality is the 2nd highest in developed countries in the US as well... so does more technology lead to better births.... some ob gyn's interivewed thought it was great others were more for moving back to a midwife lead model.

Nz doesnt have a perfect system of maternity care but I sure am glad that I have had my babies here and had pretty much the births that I wanted